Adoptive transfer of mucosal T cells or dendritic cells from animals fed with cholera toxin B subunit alloantigen conjugate induces allogeneic T cell tolerance.

Abstract

Repeated oral administration of allogeneic antigens (allo-Ag) in animals has been shown to delay rejection of cardiac allografts (). However, oral tolerance induction by feeding allo-Ag is known to be ineffective to prevent rejection of full allogeneic grafts (). We have previously found that oral administration of various antigens conjugated to the mucosa-binding molecule cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) can most effectively induce antigen-specific peripheral T cell tolerance (), and also suppress several autoimmune diseases in experimental models (). More recently, we and others reported that oral administration of a single dose of allogeneic antigens (allo-Ag) conjugated to CTB significantly prolongs murine allograft survival and inhibits the mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLR), allo-Ag-specific delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH), as well as cell-mediated cytotoxicity ( ).